# How to export Slack data: what each plan allows

> How to export Slack data: Free and Pro export public channels, Business+ adds private channels and DMs on approval, Enterprise adds custom exports.

By Matt Burns, Vaultfish. Canonical: https://vaultfish.com/answers/how-to-export-slack-data  
Published: 2026-07-23  
Updated: 2026-10-14

## The short answer

What you can export depends on your plan. Free and Pro export public channels only. Business+ exports public and private channels and DMs after the Primary Owner approves. Enterprise adds filtered and custom exports. JSON exports hold links to files, not the files.

[Slack's help page](https://slack.com/help/articles/201658943) treats the export as an admin task and hands you a plan-by-plan menu.

## Who can export on each plan?

Free and Pro workspaces: Workspace Owners and Admins can export public channels only.

Business+: Workspace Owners and Admins, with private channels, direct messages and a channel audit report available after the Primary Owner approves. Enterprise: Org Owners, plus the Export Admin system role.

File links reach back 90 days on Free and have no time limit on Pro, Business+ and Enterprise. Enterprise is the plan with custom, filtered and user-specific exports, in JSON or TXT.

## What does an export contain?

Each channel or direct message gets its own folder of date-stamped JSON files. Reference files such as users.json, channels.json, groups.json and dms.json sit beside them.

[Slack says](https://slack.com/help/articles/220556107) JSON exports contain no workspace files, only links that point back to them. A single-user TXT export does include a files folder.

## How long does it take?

I found no Slack page that gives a time or a size cap for an export. Treat any figure you hear as unverified until Slack states it.

## Is exporting your job in a corpus deal?

[micro1](/buyers/micro1)'s CFO said in an undated recorded forum talk that its forward-deployed engineering team helps your IT people with the transfer. The CFO estimated about 10 hours of work over a week or two from one or two IT people (self-reported, recording undated).

For the longer version, see [how long a data transfer takes](/answers/how-long-does-a-data-transfer-take) and [micro1's process](/answers/micro1-data-partnership-process).

## What should you check before exporting?

The route you pick decides which terms apply. [Slack's API terms](https://slack.com/terms-of-service/api), limit apps that pull data through the API, and they are written for app providers. [What Slack's terms say about exported data](/answers/does-slack-allow-ai-companies-to-use-my-exported-data) reads the text.

Channels also hold your staff's words and other companies' words. Run the [rights check](/rights-check) first, then look at the [Slack licensing overview](/answers/sell-slack-data-to-ai) and [how to size a workspace](/answers/how-to-check-slack-workspace-size).

Talk to a privacy or commercial lawyer in your state before you sign.

micro1 may pay us a referral fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. [How we are paid](https://vaultfish.com/disclosure)

Figure: comparison of What a Slack export can include, by plan: Free and Pro (Public channels), Business+ (emphasized: First plan with DMs, Plus private and DMs), Enterprise (Plus filtered exports). Business+ is emphasized because it is the first plan whose export can include private channels and direct messages.

[Apply to micro1's data partnership (paid link)](https://req.micro1.ai/post/74520e8b-4673-4da5-b855-53609aaf6710?referralCode=f82e519e-5d64-4e0e-9574-760c84371cf2&utm_source=referral&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=data_referral) · [micro1's own data-partnerships page](https://www.micro1.ai/data-partnerships)

_Paid link. [How we are paid](https://vaultfish.com/disclosure)_

_Vaultfish helps you run the process. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you need counsel who knows this area, we can point you to one._

## Sources

- [Slack's help page](https://slack.com/help/articles/201658943)
- [Slack says](https://slack.com/help/articles/220556107)
- [Slack's API terms](https://slack.com/terms-of-service/api)